Education Matters

By Deborah Williams, Academic Dean

In Trinity news the recent Scholars’ Assembly formally acknowledged the most outstanding academic achievements of the 2018 Year 12 cohort across HSC and IB. It was a recognition not only of numerical results, awards and scholarships earned, but also of the deliberate commitment and effort of the students themselves, and those who joined with them in their learning, particularly parents, siblings and Trinity staff. One of the highlights of the assembly, for me, was listening to Dr De Lany interview two young men about their experience, and to what they attributed their success.

Every December the media publishes comparison tables of secondary schools in the state. However, the published school comparison tables are incomplete and provide an unfair evaluation of schools in NSW as they omit critical information and do not take context into consideration.

Trinity Grammar School Sydney’s 2018 International Baccalaureate results are its best on record and demonstrate once again the School’s reputation for academic excellence, enabling individual students to excel across a wide range of subjects – and achieving world-best results. NIne Trinity students earned the perfect score of 45 (equal first in the world, with an ATAR of 99.95); a further five students were just one mark off the perfect score with 44 (ATAR of 99.85); and an impressive 23 percent of the IB cohort achieved an ATAR of 99 or higher.

Trinity Grammar School HSC students excel with the 2018 results demonstrating once again, the School’s reputation for academic excellence, enabling individual students to excel across a wide range of subjects.

Trinity’s Class of 2017 are dispersed near and far. Having completed the HSC or International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma in 2017, some have remained close to home, like Aruren Ravichandran, who is studying a double degree in Commerce and Law at the University of Sydney, or Ronak Nand, a Dalyell Scholar completing a Bachelor of Commerce/Advanced Studies at the University of Sydney’s Business School.

It has been regularly cited that the game of chess, invented more than 1,500 years ago in India, has educational and strategic benefits to its players. For children who start playing chess from an early age, it has been claimed to have lasting and profound effects on their cognitive development.

The Universities and Admissions Centre (UAC) in NSW and ACT processes applications for admission to most undergraduate degree, advanced diploma, diploma and associate diploma courses at participating institutions in NSW and the ACT as well as some interstate colleges and universities. Importantly, the UAC also calculates and releases the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) which tertiary institutions use as a predictor of a student’s first-year performance at university.

According to a report developed by the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, the majority of Australian children across all age groups are exceeding the current national recommended guidelines for screen time. Further, the report found that two-thirds of primary school-aged children have their own mobile screen-based device.

Learning to write takes perseverance and practice. Young children can easily become frustrated and even fearful about writing. Often, writing tasks present the first opportunities for a child to utilise independent thought, so it can be quite daunting.

By Deborah Williams, Academic Dean, Trinity Grammar School

It has become common place to talk about the importance of engaging young people in learning, but it is perhaps equally as common to find very different ideas about what student engagement actually means, and who is responsible for it.